Basement Renovation Finally Underway!

As I hear clanging and banging coming from the basement, it’s a good sign for me. We’ve been planning our basement renovation for several months now and it’s finally underway. Yesterday everything was mapped out on the floor and the rest of the week will be framing, with the electrical work starting on Monday.

Although we’ve put a lot of thought in to the design, there are always obstacles that come up in any renovation. I’ve already had to make some quick decisions about door placement and exactly how high we want the flat screen TV mounted on the wall. With my husband being away on business this week, I’m feeling a little pressure and I’m crossing my fingers that it will be in the right spot.

One feature we want in the media room is a snack bar (similar to a wet bar, but without the sink). We decided the best place for it is within the niche below the stairs and it will serve as a place to store a few snacks, some glasses, bowls and beverages. We’ve decided to install a stainless steel beverage fridge (which I’ve already changed from my previous basement post as I didn’t like the quality when I took it out of the box), as well as a base cabinet with a drawer and door. What we’re still determining is whether or not we want open shelving up top or a cabinet with double glass doors. This will influence the placement of the lighting as well, to either overhead or under cabinet.

Here are some photos I’ve pulled inspiration from:

I love the cabinet paint color, as well as the backsplash of this wet bar configuration shown above via Decor Pad.

About Shauna Oberg

Hi there, I'm Shauna. I absolutely love decorating and organizing and consider myself extremely blessed to be able to live my life creatively and thoughtfully everyday. My passion is facilitating transformations that inspire, nurture and fulfill ... Find Out More

Shauna, I agree with you on adoring the open shelf look but I think the glass doors is more practical and I also love the look of glass doors . With the busy lives we all lead we don’t need to add more work to our already overwhelming schedules. I think it would be annoying to be down relaxing for a movie and having to run upstairs to wash the dust off your glasses. I find is amazing how dusty our basement bookcases get even when we are not down there that much. Of course on the farm we have more dust than you have in the city. When I see open shelves in magazine kitchens, I love the look but I think it only works in magazines. Just my opinion.
Good luck, it’s going to be awesome!

Yay! So exciting when work gets underway. You’ve got some great inspiration pics here. I normally go for open shelving as it is more casual and also gives a feeling of more space. However, if you go with uppers, those glass front cabinets with colour in the back would be fantastic and fun.